The Penn's Grove record., 1887-09-24

but the big German soon blm.
''L.lsten to me. OF course your daugh-
ter marries the man you choose. You
know that as well as I. l ask you for
your daughters hand. and you promise
Yes; then you make excuses.
What you call back OUT But l DC
not choose you tn back out. l intend
to marry your daughter. Look here.
Granger Thompson" he continued In
a lower tone, show long have you
known me?"
81 should say bout ten years." re-
sponded the other.
"And during these ten years have
you ever known me to turn from my
purposep"
"N-n-no, 1 don't think / have"
"Or fail to succeed In anything | set
my heart ons'
"N-no; 1 dare say not"
"Well, l mean to marry your daugh-
ter"
but she won't have you"
"Poohl If you had not played me
false, my good fellow, the match would
have been arranged by this time"
"Played you false, MI. BraDdtl l.
II
Nov you listen to me. I've made
up my mind to marry your daughter
Kate, and l mean to do it. If it costs
me half my fortune l will do 1t. Ii |
have to ruin you in the process l will
do it. If"
ssGet out of tbisl' screamed little
Thompson, fairly beside himself with
"You stand at my own Preside
and threaten me. BY Jove, IN eend
for a policeman" He opened the door
and shouted "Toml" And the eldest
hope Of the Thompsons descended the
stairs three steps at a time. In a
twlnkling the street door was open and
Herr Brandt was unceremoniously bun.
died into the street.
When this feat had been accomplished
Thompson felt half afraid of what
he had done, for the German banker
was an influential mar and might be
able to injure him. 1t was too late
now, however, for regrets. He drank
a glass OF brandy by way Of steadying
his nerves, and magnanimously re-
Trained from telling his daughter that
1t was all owing to her unreasonable
obstinacy that he had got into the
scrape.
AS for the German, he went home
vowlng vengeance against the whole
family and race OF Thompsons. He
was more bent upon marrying Kate
than ever, for his resentment stimulated
rather than moderated his passion.
And he had determined to be reyenged
her father.
AT length he resolved upon a plan of
action, and he lost no time in putting
it into practice. The first experience
pool Thompson had of his enemy's
resentment was finding that his ban
kers, who had always been very civil to
him, would not discount some bills he
offered them without additional secA-
rity. He left the bank parlor =
huff, and after vainly trying 70
the bills elsewhere, was forced to
a Jew for the money From thu
came thick upon hIia.
Good customers seemed to fight shy of
him; shady people whom he hated to
have seen about his office came there,
patroniZed him and put him in the way
of contracting bad debts. People with
whom he had dealt for twenty years
suddenly seemed to be suspicious of
him; everybody to whom he owed
twenty pounds was anxious to get his
money. In a word, Granger Thomp-
sons credit was shaken so seriously
that a little more would destroy it
Sometimes the unhappy man was
inclined to attribute these untoward
events to the qui'7 had had with,
Mr.. Brandt and de reyengelul ceilings
he had excited ih the Germans breast;
at other times he thought that it was
impossible that one adverse influence
could be exercised in so many different
directions. He did not take into ac-
count the readiness with which an In
favorable rumor, coming from an APP
parently unbiased source, spreads and
itself, nor the amount OF evil
which ~persevering malignlty can &C
compllsh.
At length one day the crash came. A
firm who owed Thompson a consider
able sum failed just before the day for
paying him. The poor man had bills
to meet next week, and he had been
ON this very sum to enable him
to take them up. He applied to his
bankers to help HMM vain; he tried
one old friend after another-it was
quite useless. Poor Thompson's bills
dishonored, and in a month he
was a~djudicated a bankrupt.
The comfortable establishment at
was broken up; all the
goods-the girls piano. the
old mans easy chair, the pictures, the
spoons and forks were seized and
sold. There were no friends at hand
TO buy in some of the furniture to make
a fresh start. They went and hid
themselves in lodgings in a mean street
in the regions of Upper Holloway.
To complete the distress OF the fam
lily, Tom, who was the only one of them
who was earning anything substantial,
suddenly lost his situation, Kate found
work as a daily g~overness, but
her salary went a little way in keeping
the wolf from the door.
AS the old man, now looking seedy
and t~hreadbare, was returning home
warn dlOIS OuodPoiuo OhO biOoOh Nv
day after an unsuccessful at
tempt to obtain employment as a hook
keeper he met MI. Brandt face to face.
An angry CLEAN came into the bank
rupt's eyes, for he could not help enter
a feeling that the German had
had a hand in his misfortunes-cer-
tainly they had begun shortly after the
time when he had expelled the banker
from his house. But Brandt came up
to him, fat, fourlshing and smiling,
and held out his hand.
"Mr. Thompson-my old friend-l
was so sorry to hear of your misfor-
tunes" He took this broken-down
merchants uuTesistilg hand and
pressed it as he spoke. ST would have
you out and offered my sympa-
thy sooner, but / feared you might think
It an intrusion, as we were not on very
good terms when we parted-eh2 But
let bygones be bygones, as your fine
English proverb says. Here is q res
taurant. Have you had lunehp What
10 you say to have a chop and a glass
Of sherry together, for old times sakepn
The poor old man was hungry and he
consented.
Now tel me what l can do for